Glorious
defeats and lost causes endure in the imagination far longer than any great
victories. The idea of Custer’s Last Stand outlives the truth of the Western
campaigns against the Indians; it’s the South, not the North, that keeps the
Civil War alive; and any visitor to Europe will notice that monuments to the
fallen soldiers of two world wars abound in the vanquished nations.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย And
of course, though few know about the Battle of San Jacinto, where Sam Houston
and his “Texians” overcame the Mexican army under the infamous General Santa
Anna, everybody remembers the gallant loss and sacrifice that preceded it.
Everybody remembers the Alamo.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Hollywood,
of course, now and then jogs the national (and Texan) memory by memorializing
that event in the movies, thus fulfilling one of its important functions as
dreamspinner and mythmaker to the nation. The latest and allegedly the truest
motion picture to chronicle the famous battle, The Alamo, suggests a number of timely and occasionally
contradictory concepts in its examination of that historic and inspiring
defeat. In the process, it seems to have offended certain commentators of the
conservative persuasion.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย To
begin with, The Alamo joins such
recent films as The Missing, Open Range, and The Last Samurai in what may eventually turn out to be a minor
renaissance of the Western, an encouraging possibility for any student of the
great American genres.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย On
the other hand, this particular Western, dealing with a heroic struggle against
another nation whose language and religion distinguish its people from us, also
suggests the sort of strident nationalism masquerading as patriotism that
routinely corrupts contemporary discourse.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Apparently
the producers publicly acknowledge an attempt to capitalize on the alleged
resurgence of patriotism in the wake of the catastrophe of 9/11 and the
invasion of Iraq. What a way to express patriotism, what a way to market a
movie.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The
picture also demonstrates, however, that the events leading up to the battle
involved more than simple courage and sacrifice, but a good deal of internal
struggle among the leaders of the Republic of Texas, including conflicts over
the leadership of the troops and the division between the Texan army and the
irregular militias.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย At
the Alamo itself those conflicts emerge in the constant tension between William
Travis (Patrick Wilson), the official commander and Jim Bowie (Jason Patric),
who headed up the irregulars. In addition, as the movie shows, good old Sam
Houston (Dennis Quaid), as much a politician as a soldier, initially abandoned
the combatants and the fort in order to devote his energies to advancing his
own ambitions. He then rallied his men with the famous exhortation to remember
the Alamo, even though he had for a while conveniently forgotten the place.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The
battle itself, of course, represents something like an American Iliad, the epic story of a group of
heroes whose exploits live forever in history, fiction, and legend.
Wonderfully, the two most famous fighters at the Alamo, Jim Bowie and Davy
Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), were themselves already legends, figures forever
associated with the grand adventure into the wilderness that transformed the
American expansion of the 19th century into the enduring basis for our national
mythology.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Like
Homer’s warriors, they lead their comrades into the shining immortality that
only a glorious death in battle can bestow, comparable to the proud and
magnificent end of a Hector or an Achilles.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Beyond
the necessarily static presentation of a fortress under siege, and fierce
battles with an outcome already known, the picture concentrates on the
personalities of Travis, Bowie, and especially Crockett. Since it attempts to
show the reality of the legendary fighters, The
Alamo has apparently suffered a number of attacks from the usual right-wing
blowhards, who presumably resent the depiction of Travis’s abandonment of his
wife and children and Jim Bowie’s drunkenness.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The Alamo‘s most impressive achievement in both writing and
acting, however, lies in the character of Davy Crockett. Billy Bob Thornton
simply steals the whole movie away from the other actors and even from the
great battle itself.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย He
is alternately comical and serious and ironically conscious of his legend as a
true ring-tailed roarer who whipped his weight in wildcats, jumped over the
Mississippi, and rode a lightning bolt. Crockett also understands the reality
of fighting, killing, and dying, as he demonstrates in a moment when he
recognizes that a dead Mexican soldier is merely a boy or when he plays his
fiddle in harmony with the enemy’s band.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Aside
from the movie’s exciting display of history and heroism, Thornton’s
performance enlivens what could have been a stolid, pious description of an
important event inextricably entangled in the complicated strands of American
mythology. He makes the legend real.
The Alamo (PG-13), starring Dennis
Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Patric, Patrick Wilson; written by Leslie
Bohem, Stephen Gaghan, and John Lee Hancock; directed by John Lee Hancock.
Cinemark Tinseltown; Hoyts Greece Ridge; Loews Webster; Pittsford Plaza Cinema;
Regal Culver Ridge; Regal Eastview; Regal Henrietta.
This article appears in Apr 21-27, 2004.
